terms

Nike convicted of copyright infringement, Zhu Zhiqiang won

Back in july we told you that Nike was in court for plagiarizing cartoon stickman Now a Beijing court has ordered Nike to pay $36,000 to Zhu Zhiqiang. The court ruled that Nike had infringed on the copyright of 28-year-old cartoonist Zhu Zhiqiang, China Daily reported Thursday. The court said: "Ahead of the completion of the cartoon character of the stickman by Zhu in 2000, there was no such artistic work in China. So the character was original and should be protected by Chinese laws." Nike representative Zhang Zaiping told a newspaper that they would appeal the decision. Zhang thinks that the "stickman" lacks originality, was in the public domain and should not be protected by copyright. Nike paid Wieden and Kennedy $3 million for their version of the stickman.
Nike hasn't been lucky in China lately, with their latest ad starring LeBron being banned as it was a "national insult". To top it all off, Nike's website in China (www.nike.com.cn) was hacked on Wednesday, replacing it's content with a mocking new years message in Chinese and English.

I'm a fan too, I'm glad that he got to be "right" though the compensation is tiny in comparison to what Nike normally spits out which is a shame, and the fact that Nike wants to take it to a higher court is sad. Heineken did the right thing when they hired Zhu Zhiqiang for their stickman cartoons.